Cuckoos and Canaries
by japanimelover-222
Summary: "Two beats, and Maka was screaming the loudest I had ever heard her scream."   Another MaleCrona/Maka story.
1. Chapter 1

Crona's POV

I didn't really think about it until that arrow went through my abdomen and the startling, bone-shaking scream of Maka reached my ears. I didn't really think about the black blood, my black blood, skimming down my skin like ice skates or the tears flowering Maka's flushed cheeks; the cheeks that only blushed for me, the cheeks that held my head when my trapped cuckoo started in a flurry of feathers and fear. I didn't really think about hitting that hard floor of Medusa's hideout or about the resounding crunch that reverberated through my anatomy.

My vision was swimming, my limbs were seemingly numb and the never-ending bellows of Ragnarok weren't thrumming through my eardrums. I thought I heard a scuff of a boot meeting hard concrete, but I wasn't so sure. Maybe it was creepy, morbid, and wrong for a smile to break across my face as diseased blood cells seeped out of tired and aching skin. I couldn't feel anything anymore; just this numb prodding sensation at my forearms and near the back of my neck. Every now and again, there was a little dribble of wetness threatening to spill down my cheeks. Ever so slowly, one of my broken blues opened up to see a very distressed and upset Maka, her hands digging into my sides, her cheeks spewing forth tears that are so rare to see.

I opened my mouth to form some kind of words, but nothing came out but a muted burble and a mouthful of blood. My eyes crept up Maka's falling face, another line of blood slipping up and under the lines of my lips. The most sincere words I could have ever spoken to her were running through my mind like a mouse on a wheel, my lips and my breath not cooperating enough to tell her. _No, Maka, don't cry. I love you, you know that. You're the only one that ever cared, that ever will care… I'll miss you. I'm sorry I wasn't strong enough to stay by your side. Forgive me? _

I knew she couldn't hear me. I knew that my words of hope and promises weren't going to reach Maka's saddened ears or heal that beautiful canary that cuddled close to my cuckoo and made this warmth spread throughout my veins that the sun could never provide. My life was slipping out of me and onto that condescending concrete all too quickly, and my body was screaming at me to let go of whatever was holding me onto this world. What was holding me onto this world?

I glanced up; my tired, misty blue eyes reaching Maka's broken, olive green ones and instantly, I knew why I couldn't just leave whatever dignity I had left on this cold, hard floor; my Maka needed me.

Reaching one of my seemingly one-thousand ton hands up to find Maka's own, a thousand and a half images shifted through my crazed brain. Maka holding my hand while walking around with all of her friends. Maka blushing at me, even though Maka never blushes. Maka brushing away all of the tears I shed into her bed, into her hands, into the very fabric of her shirt. Maka smiling that smile that only belonged to me, the smile that I cherished more than anything in the world. Maka, Maka and more Maka. Nothing else mattered; nothing else will ever matter. And now, here I am, bleeding away on Medusa's concrete floor, Maka's hand clutching to mine like it'll keep me where I am, like I won't fly away into some dark abyss that can only belong to people like me.

Parting my lips once again, I got past a single phrase, my lips forming into the smile that only Maka could muster out of me.

"I love you, M-Maka. More than anything." I heard a very harsh sob, and Maka leaned her forehead against my own, her eyes searching mine for anything, anything at all. Finally, she parted her panting lips, her voice hushed and broken, her canary once again calling out to my cuckoo.

"I love you too, Crona. More than anything. Forever and ever." My eyes closed, that smile still plastered on my face. But, before I could utter out anything more, Maka's lips found mine in a flurry. The kiss was hungry, full of emotion and raw want and need. My breath was stolen away from me, my limbs going slack, my cuckoo giving out its final calls of defeat. The last thing I felt was Maka's lips on mine, that warmth was once rushing through my distraught veins, my hands clutching onto the only thing I could call mine, the only person who would call me theirs.

Two more beats and my heart was spent.

Two more beats and Maka was gone.

Two more beats and Maka was screaming the loudest I had ever heard her scream.


	2. Chapter 2

Maka's POV

No. No. NONONONONONO. Crona is not dead. Crona is not gone. Crona is not lying before me, laying in a bed of his own blood, letting loose his last breath between my trembling lips. His hands aren't loosening his hold on my own; his heart hasn't stopped thumping along with mine. This isn't happening, this isn't happening, this _isn't. _**Happening. **

I pulled my lips regretfully away from Crona's own, a silent sound passing from tightly bound teeth, one of my cold, seemingly lifeless hands reaching forward to caress one of Crona's blood-caked cheeks. My Crona. _My_ Crona, that's laying here in the blood that I let spill, all because I didn't notice Medusa's arrow a second beforehand.

Another stifling sob tore its way through my lips, my shoulders hunching forward, my fingers clutching to the hand that held my future in their nervous palms. He was doing it to protect me. My head shook, my trademark pigtails following the movements fluently. Don't tell me that after all this time, I'm the reason behind Crona's upsetting demise. Don't tell me, that after everything we've gone through, everything we've done… It's all for nothing, simply because Medusa doesn't have a heartfelt cell in her false body.

My eyes clenched shut tightly, this swimming like tadpoles floating through my eardrums. My fingers were clinging onto Crona's hand, my head playing with the thought of my calloused fingertips being able to pick up his heartbeat, to let it ring through his broken veins and resonate at his toes. My thoughts were jumbled into this impossibly small cardboard box, poking and prodding at my frontal lobe, scenes and instances of Crona, Crona and I, Crona, Crona, Crona. The thoughts were leaking, screaming, clawing at the cardboard walls, and the tadpoles in my ears were turning into huge bullfrogs that sounded like the scream that's loosed from my lips too many times. _This isn't happening to _my _Crona. I didn't let this happen. No, no, Maka, he's dead because of you. _You_ let this happen. He's lying, dead, melding into a pool of his own blood because you are the _worst_ girlfriend in the world. The only one… The only one… He's gone. Crona… _

When passing over it, I'm not really sure what happened next. I knew that I was screaming some morbid version of Crona's name, my blood pumping through my veins faster than it had in awhile. I could hear a quiet mumbling that sounded like Soul's voice thrumming through my brain cells, but I couldn't comprehend the idea of stopping what was flowing through my bones, my anxious feet responding all too quickly. My pupils were dilated to little dots, my death glare passing over my shoulder in _her _direction. It's _her_ fault that my canary can't create broken and beautiful disasters with her nervous cuckoo. It's _her_ fault his heart has ceased to pump blood; it's _her_ fault that I won't have a hand to hold anymore. It's _her. _Fault.

Medusa.

I could feel the rage and utter heartbreak fueling the palms of my hands and the fingertips that correspond with them as I gripped my weapon close to my chest, tears still spilling down my cheeks, Soul's voice doing nothing but urging on the quiet darkness rumbling underneath my skin. I knew what was becoming of my hard-as-steel yet fragile-as-glass teenage body as another blood-wrenching scream made its way past the slippery prison of my lips. My feet met hard and cold-hearted concrete in what sounded like an earthquake, my hands gripping Soul so tightly I could feel his eye twitch in frustration.

Soul's pointless screams and demands for me to calm down were being devoured by the bullfrogs and the roaring lions chasing zebras in my hands and feet. The darkness was growing, louder and louder, more and more demanding. I knew this feeling. I knew what these tendrils of menacing snarls and vicious howls were entailing. I knew that the demon with teeth just like Soul's was slowly overtaking my body, my veins singing with blood that certainly wasn't meant for organs like mine.

In my subconscious, I knew that what was happening was wrong. After all the time that I've been dealing with the black blood, I shouldn't let it overcome me when I was afraid or broken… But, my Crona was dead back there, and I wasn't able to do anything to ease his pain or to even stop it from happening.

I could hear my feet creating grand canyons in their wake as I pounded my way to Medusa, that evil, vile little creature that had torn my cuckoo's heart out and had stomped, smashed, smushed and shoved until there was nothing left except for aching cries that would never reach anyone's ears but mine. Her snide sneer as I neared her just fueled the demon residing in both me and Soul to smash through this barrier, causing another bone shattering scream to reverberate through my inner chords.

I was nearing Medusa, my feet growing light and feather heavy when, suddenly, I was met with a soul force I knew all too well.

I fell, a great shake following after, the demon being forced back into his little room that was programmed into my brain, along with my weapon's.

The last words I heard before I slipped into unconsciousness belonged to Soul's heavy, extremely male, voice.

"You're such an idiot, Maka."


	3. Chapter 3

Maka's POV

I could feel my heartbeat resonating in the floor located underneath my aching chest, a soft cough fighting its way out between sore lips. Shaky gloved fingers were searching desperately for something I wasn't sure of, a scraping noise equivalent to that of rain on a leaky roof reaching my unprepared ears. Releasing another tired cough, I swore I could hear the quiet, yet reprimanding, mumble of my weapon degrading me once again for making a bad decision. Tentatively, I cracked open one of my eyelids, my retinas meeting a dim light, the concrete walls doing nothing but echoing back the glow of the candles nestled on Medusa's altar.

Instantly, my mind jolted awake, my body and its corresponding limbs at full attention. I was still in Medusa's hideout. I was… I was attacking her for killing my Crona, for making his heart stop calling out to mine, for making this hollow feeling in my bones reverberate throughout my entire being, calling out instead to black blood found wedged between lying organs and condescending hearts. It's terribly cliché and almost childish to say that she ripped the meaning of life right out from under my inattentive nose, the pink flurry of hair scratched from my eye sockets and the voice that could call out my name in such sweet tones… Gone, forever; all because of a witch that just wouldn't die.

I snarled the best I could, the sound coming out as nothing more than a guttural cough, my inner demon cursing my inability to even come off as intimidating. My knees scraped against hard concrete, my one thousand ton legs somehow managing to keep me afloat in this personal hell. My hands found the sore spot in my side, my mind finally recognizing the pain as Stein's soul force.

Scanning the hideout hurriedly, my eyes landed on nothing other than my white-haired weapon, his gravity-defying hair sticking up at odd angles behind the little headband he opted to wear every day. He was wearing this scowl that was only saved for me, his hands crossing his chest like only Soul's could, the very demeanor of his stance suggesting that, once again, I was a fool not to listen to him. His bangs were clouding his ruby red eyes, his teeth turning up in a smirk demeaning anyone willing to disobey his orders. A very heavy and frustrated sigh fell out of my lips, my screaming bones and joints carrying me over to him. I could feel the retort slinking around the air on his lips before he uttered it forth.

"You really are an idiot, Maka. You should know better by now not to use the black blood. It only drives you that much more insane." His smirk broadened, just challenging me to object to any of the words swimming from his lips. "You really should start listening to me."

I wasn't exactly thrilled with the idea of listening to Soul argue with me on a point that was oh so sensitive at the moment. It wasn't like he was watching the love of his life crumple into tiny pieces, never again to see the light of day or hold your hand or push away a stray strand of hair that just happens to fall into your eyes. No, he didn't have to deal with these terrible emotions that made me want to break down, die, fall apart and create chaos in my wake all at once, because it was my fault that arrow went through Crona's abdomen and not mine. I'm the reason why he's dead, why he's lying on the cold, cold floor with his blood seeping out of him in every way possible, displaying images you think would stay only in horror movies, the black pool doing nothing but mocking my folly. I hate Medusa. I hate myself. I hate that Soul can just stand there with this… This smirk on his face when I know he can just _feel_ how much I hurt.

A growl dug its way into my throat, staying there as my feet swiftly carried me to my weapon, my forest green eyes threatening him in ways words never could. His jerky façade melted in front of my gaze, my thoughts wondering just what he saw buried deep within it. My feet parted in a wide stance, my fist meeting the concrete wall next to Soul's form with a loud, echoing bang, my breath escaping me in desperate, wild pants. I couldn't handle this. It wasn't fair of him to mock me, to basically tell me that yes, it was all my fault that Crona was dead because of me, and my attempt at revenge was nothing more than a childish game.

My lips parted in a scream only my lungs could muster, the sound sickening in its wallowing echo and broken tone. My eyes screwed shut so tightly I swear I could see stars, my fingers tearing at the gloves resting on my knuckles, throwing them in some wayward direction I could care less about. My receiving flesh found the wall next to Soul once again, the satisfying crunch of bone doing nothing to stop the heated hatred dwelling deep down in my soul, the inner demon threatening to come out once again. He asked for it, this, this monster I was becoming. I glanced up, my breath still flying from between my lips like steam from a kettle, this crooked grin taking over my face that irked something in my weapon's wavelengths. Throwing my head back, I cackled, the festering pot of emotions found in my gut stirring and stirring until I heard something in my soul crack.

"I'm not an idiot, Soul. What would you do if that was your lover over there, settling in an ocean of their own blood?" I knew that I was just digging myself into a deeper hole, but, at this point, it didn't matter. He needed to know how much this hurt me, how much this was literally tearing my soul apart. I thought I could see a shift in his mood reflecting in the deep pools of crimson that were his eyes, but he didn't respond; just stared me down and awaited my next utterance. "You don't even _know_ how much this hurts, Soul." I spat out his name like one would spit out a wad of chewing tobacco, tossing it onto the floor and not caring whose foot stomped upon it. "He's _dead_. Do you not understand what that means or something? Can you seriously not hear of_ feel_ my soul wavelengths right now? Because don't you _dare_ tell me that you can't or you don't care or you just don't."

I was seething, honestly. I can't remember the last time I had snapped at Soul like this, besides maybe when we were trying to link all of our souls together in that lesson with Professor Stein. The deep forests dwelling within my corneas locked onto Soul's Valentine's Day red, a deep scowl etching itself onto my face, my hands moving down to clutch onto my weapon's shoulders with much more force than was needed. I swear to whatever holy being above me that I was going to snap him in half if he kept looking at me like nothing mattered. I couldn't stop the tears before they rolled down my cheeks, leaving burning embers in their wake, pooling at my chin with a weight that felt like a ten-thousand pound chain.

"Do you really hate my decision that much, Soul, to overlook what just happened? Yes, the black blood is a terrible thing and I know that it doesn't necessarily make us that much stronger, but, look at him." I jerked my shoulder in the direction of a sight that I just couldn't look at anymore, begging him to at least _try_ to understand.

I'm not sure if I looked absolutely pathetic or as hurt as a kicked puppy, but Soul's eyes melted into this fireplace the color of cinnamon mixed with cherries, and his lips flickered up into his trademark smile, stating that everything was going to be all right.

His hands reached up, patting my cheeks and ridding them of the stupid tears that were occurring way too often. The heat and anger that had just consumed me flew away like a fleeting memory, my bones going weary and heavy with a different kind of grief. I sagged against my weapon, a cry emitting again from tired lungs, my hands gripping onto Soul's sides like that could bring back my beautiful cuckoo. My ears received a slipping sigh from Soul's open lips, his leather coated arms wrapping around me. The whisper that left his lungs and buried itself into the air surrounding our close proximity made me feel like the fool he just claimed me to be.

"The least you could do is say goodbye to him, right? We'll get Medusa later, I promise. There's no way I'm going to let her get away with killing a good friend of mine." It simply amazed me how different Soul can be under the right circumstances. Where was the jerky guy I met only a minute or so ago?

He chuckled, the sound warming my chest like a heat pack meant for sore muscles. "Go on. I'll wait." He pushed me back gently, looking at me and nodding his head, his spikes lingering in the direction of Crona's frozen body.

I nodded as well, urging my feet onto the sight of disaster, my breath trapping in my chest, my canary fluttering and crying about in search of some kind of purchase. I willed myself not to think about the reason why he was dead, why he wasn't here beside Soul and I. I took a very shaky and unsettling breath, my chest beating with a heart that wasn't mine, my thoughts serenading with a boy that had captured my heart, even after he had maimed my weapon and drove our Professor into a fit of madness.

Somehow, my feet dragged my reluctant body to the sight of something that no lover ever wanted to grace their eyes upon. I swallowed down the sob lodged in my throat, my breath leaving my lungs in a whisper of his name, my knees colliding with the concrete, my hand wrapping around Crona's blood-soaked one.

He looked peaceful, like he could finally sleep without the scare of Medusa creeping forth and ripping any fond memories from his tortured brain. I couldn't repress the silent tear that tumbled down my cheek or the way my hands brought his own to my lips, kissing every knuckle that rested behind his timid flesh. I couldn't believe I was actually saying goodbye to the only person in the world that brought forth passion for something that wasn't turning Soul into a Death Scythe or brining pain upon that cheating father of mine. I couldn't believe that this was actually goodbye.

I leaned down, planting a few more kisses upon Crona's cheeks, my arms scooping under his sodden form. "I love you, Crona. I love you more than… Well, more than anything. More than absolutely anything." I then proceeded to bury my nose into Crona's blushing hair, my canary sobbing along with my bated breaths, my limbs locking around the one thing that I could never honestly let go.

My whole mindset was not ready for the waking of a half-dead Crona, or for the terrible coughing that emitted from him, claiming that he wasn't dead, that I didn't have to say goodbye to the only thing that really mattered. I tensed around Crona, my eyes cracking open, a gasp of my own meeting Crona's quiet coughs. I glanced over his face, another set of tears rolling down, a smile gracing my face. He smiled along with me, one of his beautiful blues popping open to gaze into mine, a quiet whisper floating out from his between lips that I couldn't believe were still moving.

"I love you too, Maka. More than anything."

_I realize that this took me a long, long time to finish, and I really apologize for that. _

_I was stuck in this really bad writer's block and I just couldn't seem to find a way out of it._

_But, yes, it's done, and I'm quite happy with it. _

_You should review, because that would make my day. ;D _


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